Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said approval had been granted for the use of these vaccines as booster doses for individuals aged 18 years and above who had received “primary series” vaccines of the same type (homologous).

Currently, only Pfizer has been given conditional approval for use as booster shots in Malaysia.

“The booster dose for the AstraZeneca vaccine will be given after an interval of six months from the second dose of the vaccine while for the Sinovac vaccine, the booster dose will be given between three and six months after the second dose,” Noor Hisham said in a statement.

“The administration of booster doses of these two vaccines to specific target groups will be detailed by the Covid-19 booster immunisation task force (CITF-B).”

Noor Hisham said the decision was reached at a DCA meeting today.

He added that the conditional approval also requires that information on the quality, safety and effectiveness of the vaccine must be monitored and evaluated regularly based on the latest data available.

“This is to ensure that the comparison of benefits over risk for the vaccine remains positive,” he said.

The implementation of nationwide booster doses started on Oct 13, initially involving high-risk groups such as the elderly, those who were immunocompromised, people with comorbidities, healthcare workers, and workers at care homes.

This has since been expanded to pregnant mothers, non-healthcare frontliners and those aged 40 and above.

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